Bernice Leah Reading

Leah Reading July 18, 1913 October 5, 2010 Leah Reading, a longtime Mentone resident, passed away Tuesday, surrounded by loved ones. She was 97. She was born July 18, 1913, in Garnett, Kansas, the 12th of 13 children. She came to California in 1925 with her parents, Edgar and Josephine Ashburn. The Ashburns settled in Inglewood where Leah was a 1931 graduate of Inglewood High School. Leah attended the Lawndale Church of Christ and was married there in 1935 to Ralph Brick Reading. They resided in Hawthorne until they moved to Mentone in 1962. Brick owned and operated Reading Tire & Brake on Eureka Street in Redlands for 25 years. She was a member of the Mentone Woman s Club and was a Deaconess at Mentone Baptist Church (now Rocky Point Fellowship) for many years. She helped organize the church s Vacation Bible School. Leah was a descendant of Charlemagne. Her ancestors came to America in 1654 and were Virginia colonists; her 5th great-grandmother was a cousin of President George Washington. Her grandfather, Charles M. Ashburn, served in the Civil War as a bugler in Company F, of the 11th Regiment of Kansas Volunteers. Leah is survived by her daughters, Johanna O Neal and Kathleen (Gerry) Buss, of Mentone. A son, Dennis, and her husband, Brick, predeceased her. She leaves 13 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Services will be private.